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eisakouo

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Tag Archives: Lincoln quote

Living In Uncertain Times

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Living In Uncertain Times

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bad news, God will always do His part, II Chronicles 32, King Hezekiah, Life is uncertain but God is not, Lincoln quote, rains on the just and unjust, real believers are planters, responsibility, safe and secure, Sennachrib, spirituality, trusting God in difficult circumstances, uncertain times, wading through quicksand

 

 

We do live in uncertain times.  I don’t think you need me to tell you this fact.  I am sure you have been watching the news or catching blimps here and there.  It seems here lately there has only been BAD NEWS. I want you to ask and answer yourself this question.

  • Do you feel safe and secure?
  • Do you feel like the Hand of God is upon this nation?
  • Do you feel like the grace and blessing of God is continuing to protect us, even from ourselves? Or have you noticed lately, no matter how hard we try every effort is like wadding through quicksand…. everything turns into an effort of futility.

Now, if you believe we are living in uncertain times, be of good courage. A lot of people lived in uncertain times and learned to trust God through difficult circumstances. And now we live in uncertain times too and this means the Bible should be more relevant today than any other time in our life. We should be looking to it for answers to the difficulties we face. II Chronicles 32 speaks to this very issue and I am going to spend four or five blogs talking about what King Hezekiah did to face the same uncertainties we face.

 

 Take moment and find a sheet of paper or pull up the notepad on your computer or phone.  Write down or type in the thing or things you are most worried about in your life right now. Set it aside, because we will come back it later.

 

There is a core principle which must be established in our lives before any of us can even attempt to trust and know God more intimately in difficult circumstances.  It goes like this… Life Is Uncertain, but God Is Not. Life will throw a lot of uncertain people, things and events at you.  But, it must be settled in your heart and spirit… life is totally uncertain, but God is not.  No matter what happens you will always be the apple of God’s eye and kept in the center of His hand. God loves you.  He is not trying to make life more difficult for you. He seeks only the very best for you.  As Christians, knowing God is in control, should dictate how we respond to crisis.

Now listen to what I am about to say… Most Christians are not going to fare well in these future difficult times.  Why?  The truth is not in them and the difficult times will bear that reality. Just because some believers will be exposed shouldn’t dissuade you from pursuing the Lord with all your heart. Real believers are planters.  They plant truth in their lives in good times and bad.  Bad circumstances only causes them to plant more vigorously.

This is why Hezekiah is a good example for us today.  When he became king, corruption abounded.  Yet, he pursued the Lord with all his heart.  After 11 years of reform, you would have thought he would have blessed with peace and tranquility, but no.

 

After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself.  2 Chronicles 32:1

 

Does anyone have a problem with this? For 11 years, Hezekiah has done everything right, but trouble still came his way. Now most people would say something like this “God, I don’t understand…I was doing everything right, why did You let this happen? God I thought if I followed You, I wouldn’t have these types of problems!” Have you ever question God like this?

Here’s what Hezekiah knows: Life is uncertain, but God is not. This young king is more familiar with God than the difficult circumstances he faces.  So rather than shaking his fist at God and blaming Him or pouting, because God is not fair.  He simply concludes, “that’s life.  It rains on the just and unjust“.  Hezekiah didn’t turn to Prosaic to fight off depression.  He moved forward by taking steps to ensure he had done all he is supposed to do. In times of uncertainty, we still have responsibility.

This is important. Let me explain. Suppose you knew a farmer and visited his farm one day. There you saw him sitting on his tractor, pouting.  You ask, “what’s wrong?”  The farmer quickly retorts, “Well I’m mad with God, because the harvest isn’t what I thought it would be.”   You look out at the fields and sure enough there is nothing growing. Out of curiosity, you start to ask questions, “What’s wrong? Did it not rain enough?” He confesses, “It rained plenty.”  You further inquire, “Is the soil not fertile?”  He says, “No, it’s great. That’s why I am so mad. I’ve got good soil, I’ve had good rains. It should have been a good harvest.”  So you inquire,  “Well what kind of seed did you plant?” “Well I didn’t plant any,” he asserts.

What are you going to concude from a situation like this?  If you don’t sow the seed, how can you expect a harvest?  Yet, this is precisely what people do in difficult circumstances.  They stop praying.  They stop giving.  They stop putting the word of God inside their heart. They stop fighting for right and wrong.  Even in difficult and uncertain times we must be planters, knowing we cannot harvest if there is NO SEED in the ground.

When uncertainty comes and it always does… There are some things we are responsible to do.  God will always do His part.  We have God’s promise in His word. This is what Hezekiah knew…Life is uncertain but God is not.  Hezekiah knew he could count on God, but he also knew his responsibility.

Stay with me… next we will see what Hezekiah did next to assure Sennachrib didn’t defeat him.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

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The Haunted House

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by eisakouo in The Strange & Unusual Voice of God

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classic ghostly activities, corrie ten boom, counseling, entity, evil spirit, ghost, ghost busting, God's voice, hidden stash, intervention, Lincoln quote, mother and kids, open door for evil spirits, pastor, patience, praise songs, principles, Proverbs 26:2, rededicate, skeptical, spare tire, steering wheel, voyeuristic activities

 

 

Back in the 80’s I was fresh out of seminary and had taken a position as pastor at a church.  I placed an ad in the local paper stating I did spiritual counseling.  It wasn’t long before a middle-age lady made an appointment for counseling.  I was excited.

She came alone and began to share her problem.  In the past few months she believed some spiritual entity had come to live in her home with her two teenage children.  She called it a ghost or spirit.  It did all sorts of classic ghostly activities like rattling chains, turning on/off lights, turning on/off the television and opening and closing doors.  In addition, she heard it walking around upstairs and heard it making other types of sounds periodically.  It never harmed her or her children, just scared them.

I was kind of shocked.  I had minored in psychology, received a Master’s Degree in Family Counseling and spent three years working on a Psychology Unit.  I dealt with major crises every day.  I thought I was ready for any type of psychological problem.  Yet this lady walked in and started talking about being bothered by ghosts.  To say I was somewhat skeptical was an understatement.  Yet, I could feel the Lord telling me to be patient and stick with her.

Since her children were older, I asked her to bring them into the session so that I could talk to them.  One was 15 and the other 18.  They shared the same stories.  Sometimes the events would happen when they were alone and on other occasions the ghostly episodes occurred when they were together. All vouched to the validity of the presence that now lived in their house.  Basically she wanted me to get rid of ghost.  She did come for “spiritual” counseling, remember.

I really didn’t know where to begin, but since the buck was stopping with me, I took the problem to a pastor’s meeting I attended every week.  Thankfully, some of these guys were more seasoned in “ghost busting” than me.  Who ya gonna call?  They shared two important principles which I have used again and again in my ministry.  The first principle they shared was no spirit, principality, or demon comes without being invited in some fashion. In other words, a door has to be opened.  A verse of scripture I learned later was Proverbs 26:2 “so the curse causeless shall not come.”  So the first thing I needed to do was discover what or who had opened that door.  The second principle I will share in a moment.

At least now I had a place to begin.  In the next session I told the mother that someone had to open a spiritual door that had given the presence the right to move into her house.  As we talked it was soon apparent that neither she nor her children were responsible.  She admitted that she was estranged and separated from her husband.  The reason for this separation was due to his excessive drinking and “creepy” behavior.  He had been accused and arrested of some voyeuristic activities.  The mother didn’t feel she could trust him anymore and had kicked him out of the house.  I felt in my spirit that he was responsible and must have left some items in the home which opened the spiritual door for this evil spirit.  I communicated this information to the mother and told her to search the house for the estranged husband’s stash.  They did and reported back nothing could be found.  I told them to look again.  They did and reported back that nothing was in the home.

Sometimes God’s voice is loud and sometimes “it is a still quiet voice.”  I felt the Lord telling me again to have the family search the house one more time.  I was hoping I was hearing the Lord’s voice correctly, because this situation was going to get embarrassing if they didn’t find something.  They went back to search once more.  This time the search was more thorough and the mother discovered the husband’s hidden stash.  In the back of their bedroom closet he had carved a hole and had it covered.  Inside the hole were several bottles of liquor, pornography magazines and tapes.  The Lord was right!

 

 

Let me make a parenthetical note here.  I have talked with numerous others who have had such items in their homes as well… with no demonic spirits attached.  One does not equal the other.  The satanic underworld is not vast enough to attach itself to every bottle of alcohol and every work of pornography.  In this case these items meant something deeper to the estranged husband.  I never talked to the man and never discovered his story.  But there was a spirit attached to this man’s hidden stash and probably a spirit was attached to the man himself.

This leads to the second principle the pastors taught me.  They encouraged me not to make a big fuss, if possible, when removing the demonic apparition from the home.  Some type of intervention had to be made.  They suggested instead of making a big production, start small.  In other words, don’t escalate things into a battle when you do not have to go in that direction.  I felt led to have the family rededicate themselves to the Lord.  In addition, I encouraged them to walk through the house singing praise songs to the Lord claiming their house as territory of the Lord.  They did and the evil spirit left without further occurrence.  Praise the Lord!

At the time I didn’t know that this would be the first of many more such encounters in my life.  The voice and leading of God were true and He is always faithful.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

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